Audit report – Administrative access to information – How the Department of Education manages access to documents held in schools
This report outlines how the Department of Education manages its administrative access arrangement to documents held in schools and makes recommendations for improvement.
Administrative access arrangements facilitate easy, fast access to information. This supports open, transparent and accountable government and helps build trust.
Most of the requests schools receive are for information relating to students. Requests for non-student information are rare.
Key findings:
- The department’s central office, regional offices and audited schools take students’ safety, wellbeing and privacy seriously and carefully consider all requests for student information.
- Schools and regional offices work together to respond to unusual requests for information.
- The department has policies, procedures and training about its administrative access arrangement. However, visited schools were generally unaware of these resources.
- The procedures are out of date and sometimes inconsistent.
The department had identified some of these issues before the audit. We made six recommendations. The department supports our recommendations and intends to implement them. We will monitor the department’s progress.
Our findings and recommendations may also assist other Queensland government agencies in managing their own administrative access arrangements.
